Donald Trump injured after shots fired at rally in Pennsylvania; shooting being investigated as attempted assassination

Pre­sump­tive Repub­li­can nom­i­nee and for­mer pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump was rushed off­stage after gun­shots were heard at a cam­paign ral­ly he was speak­ing at on Sun­day. Video from the event, which is wide­ly avail­able, shows Trump bleed­ing after being helped to his feet by Secret Ser­vice agents. Trump was then escort­ed by agents to a wait­ing U.S. gov­ern­ment sport util­i­ty vehi­cle and whisked away. 

A state­ment from a Trump spokesman said that the for­mer pres­i­dent was “fine and is being checked out at a local med­ical facil­i­ty.” A spokesman for the Secret Ser­vice also con­firmed Trump’s safe­ty with­out going in depth into the incident.

Polit­i­cal lead­ers from all over the coun­try have rushed to con­demn what appears to be a hor­rif­ic act of polit­i­cal vio­lence and pos­si­bly an assas­si­na­tion attempt. 

Wash­ing­ton’s senior U.S. Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray said in a state­ment on Twit­ter that “Vio­lence is nev­er accept­able, I don’t care what your polit­i­cal beliefs are. We use our voic­es and our votes in a democ­ra­cy — vio­lence has no place in America.”

House Major­i­ty Leader Steve Scalise (LA-01), a Repub­li­can who was shot by a vio­lent extrem­ist who held left-lean­ing beliefs in 2017, said he was “pray­ing” for Trump, adding: “There is nev­er any place for polit­i­cal violence.”

At the time of the appar­ent shoot­ing, Pres­i­dent Biden was attend­ing Mass in Delaware. After leav­ing church, he was briefed by fed­er­al offi­cials and sub­se­quent­ly made a state­ment to the White House press corps. He also issued a writ­ten statement:

I have been briefed on the shoot­ing at Don­ald Trump’s ral­ly in Pennsylvania.

I’m grate­ful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m pray­ing for him and his fam­i­ly and for all those who were at the ral­ly, as we await fur­ther information.

Jill and I are grate­ful to the Secret Ser­vice for get­ting him to safe­ty. There’s no place for this kind of vio­lence in Amer­i­ca. We must unite as one nation to con­demn it.

Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris also issued a statement: 

I have been briefed on the shoot­ing at for­mer Pres­i­dent Trump’s event in Pennsylvania.

Doug and I are relieved that he is not seri­ous­ly injured. We are pray­ing for him, his fam­i­ly, and all those who have been injured and impact­ed by this sense­less shooting.

We are grate­ful to the Unit­ed States Secret Ser­vice, first respon­ders, and local author­i­ties for their imme­di­ate action.

Vio­lence such as this has no place in our nation. We must all con­demn this abhor­rent act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to more violence.

Details remain some­what spare at this junc­ture, but an eye­wit­ness account and mass media reports sug­gest that the shoot­er may have been posi­tioned on a one-sto­ry rooftop out­side of the secu­ri­ty perime­ter of the ral­ly and was armed with a rifle. 

As pro­gres­sives, we at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute are fierce­ly opposed to polit­i­cal vio­lence direct­ed against any­one. What we have just seen is hor­rif­ic. It’s a fresh reminder that noplace in our coun­try is safe from the scourge of gun vio­lence — not even a Trump ral­ly with secu­ri­ty pro­vid­ed by the Secret Service. 

This must change. 

We call on Con­gress to work with Pres­i­dent Biden to pass new bipar­ti­san gun safe­ty laws imme­di­ate­ly to ensure that Amer­i­cans are bet­ter pro­tect­ed from gun vio­lence in their homes, busi­ness­es, places of wor­ship, and pub­lic gath­er­ing spaces.